ARCHIVED - Lorca marks 10th anniversary of catastrophic flooding in which 10 lost their lives

Progress in improving flood protection infrastructures in the Lorca countryside has been disappointingly slow since 2012

Tuesday September 28 was a day of solemn remembrance and reflection in Lorca as the city marked the 10^th anniversary of the catastrophic “flood of San Wenceslao”.

Just 16 months after the destruction of so many buildings in Lorca by the 2011 earthquake, on September 28, 2012 a cataclysmic DANA or “gota fría” storm hit south-western Murcia, with up to 300 millimetres of rain falling in the mountains just north of Lorca and Puerto Lumbreras. The widespread flooding resulted in 10 people losing their lives (including 5 in the Region of Murcia), considerable destruction of infrastructures, the loss of thousands of head of cattle and the complete obliteration of large swathes of farmland. The cost of repairs and restoration was estimated at some 100 million euros.

Remembering the events of a decade ago Diego José Mateos, the Mayor of Lorca, also recalled that since 2012 plans have been finalized to include floodwater precautions in Béjar and the Rambla de Biznaga, while reiterating the need for further dams in the Rambla de La Torrecilla and the Rambla de Nogalte”. However, he lamented that it has taken so long for responses to the risk of flooding to come to fruition, stating that for “too many years” nothing was done.

Along the same lines, locals are planning a protest on Sunday October 2 outside the water administration offices in Lorca to demand rapid action. The demonstrators will gather at 10.00 in the Alameda de Cervantes and march through the city centre to the Town Hall in the Plaza de España.

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